(Editor’s note: this story is updated from an earlier version to note that NBA games are appearing on some smaller TV networks in China.)
While other news has dominated sports headlines since the 2019 stalemate began, the Chinese government quietly continues to keep the NBA practically down in the world’s largest basketball market.
TV exile began in October 2019, when Houston Rockets’ then general manager, Daryl Morey, tweeted in support of Hong Kong’s pro-democracy protesters who faced violent repression from mainland China’s Communist authoritarian government.
It was an expensive tweet for the NBA. Beijing quickly took the league’s games off the air and the country’s main streaming service, a major blow to a league that craves huge Chinese audiences and their money.
A year later, there seemed to be a thaw in the stalemate. State-run China Central Television (CCTV) announced on October 9 that …